Straight Writes and Jabs: An Inside Look at Another Year in Boxing

It’s Sixty Seconds Between Rounds, Not Sixty-Seven

Sometimes it seems as though nonsense is the only type of sense that boxing has. It’s Sixty Seconds Between Rounds, Not Sixty-Seven At times, there seems to be a maxim in boxing:“If it ain’t broke, fix it until it is.” One of the few things in boxing that ain’t broke is the time-honored rhythm of the sport; three minutes a round with sixty seconds between rounds. Much of the integrity that has existed in professional boxing since the 1800s comes from that rhythm and the conduct of the fights themselves. NBC Sports Network is airing a series of fights that run occasionally on Saturday night. Earlier this month, Jon Miller (president of programming for NBC Sports and NBC Sports Network) wrote to the Association of Boxing Commissions and asked that promoters be allowed to increase the time between each round of a televised fight from sixty to sixty-seven seconds. Miller believes that the extra time between rounds is a concession that boxing should make to adapt to a business reality. More specifically, in his letter to the ABC, he declared,“NBC has a major concern with the rigid timing between rounds set forth by the Boxing Commissions in each state.We feel strongly this mandate negatively impacts the quality of television production.The Fight Night Series will simply not survive without advertising support and allowing us to be storytellers.We must run two thirty-second commercial units between each round.The inability to come back from a one minute commercial break without any additional time to show highlights from the previous round and set up the next round is a disservice to the boxing viewer and most importantly the athletes who are giving their all in the ring.” It’s nice that Miller is concerned “most importantly” with “the athletes who are giving their all in the ring.” His letter closes with the dec154 THOMAS HAUSER laration,“This change will make the sport more broadcast friendly and substantially increase a boxer’s ability to make a living on a platform other than the pay channels of HBO, Showtime, and PPV.The NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL all have adapted to this broadcast friendly model and, with their network partners, customized mutually beneficial television timings.This timing change will not negatively impact the integrity of competition but only enhance the content in building stars and elevating the great sport of boxing.” NBC wants the Association of Boxing Commissions to issue a policy statement in support of the proposed change.It would then be up to individual state athletic commissions to implement the sixty-seven-second rule or decline to do so. Presumably, other networks that are supported by advertising (such as ESPN) will follow NBC’s lead if the change is approved. Tim Lueckenhoff (president of the Association of Boxing Commissions ) told this writer (on July 19, 2012),“I will speak in favor of the proposal .Anything we can do to promote boxing is a positive.” Sports change.That’s a given. Boxing has changed too. In bare-knuckle days, a round lasted until a fighter was knocked down. He then had one minute to return to the center of the ring and continue the battle.Fighters now wear gloves instead of fighting with bare knuckles. Championship fights have evolved from “fights to the finish” to fifteen rounds to twelve.A fighter must now go to a neutral corner in the event of a knockdown rather than stand over a fallen opponent and throw punches as soon as his foe rises from the canvas.Weigh-ins have moved from the day of a fight to the day before to allow a fighter to replenish his body. Fighters now enter the ring to their own ring-walk music; something that was not contemplated by John L. Sullivan or Joe Louis. Through it all, the sixty-second period between rounds has been sacrosanct. Boxing is different from other sports.Breaks in the action are carefully calibrated.Three-minute rounds with a one-minute rest period between rounds is at the core of professional boxing. In gyms across the country, an automatic bell sounds the familiar cadence that becomes second-nature to a professional fighter. No matter how supporters of the sixty-seven-second rule style it, STRAIGHT WRITES AND JABS 155 they’re asking for a seven-second television timeout between rounds...